MyTimeToBlog
When you think of Romeo and Juliet, their ending was tragic, and so is this story.
Taz and I met during our numerous trips to the library, where we stood in line for a disc player to watch movies all afternoon. He enjoyed the anime, while I caught up on movies I had never seen. We spoke on occasion, because he told me which disc player worked the best. That's how I knew of him, the guy who told me which disc player worked best.
As our encounters became more frequent, I discovered he was the hairstylist for the facility. Thanks to men growing their dreadlocks, Taz became their go-to guy. He had a lucrative hustle, and my celly having dreads, Taz ventured from his housing unit to ours. We spoke, and what's funny is that he and I shared an interest in manga, so we developed a bond over them.
Now, as we did, he, like most, opened up about his life outside of prison. He explained that he was the father of a shocking eleven kids. I looked at this young man, in his early 30s and shook my head; he had me thinking he had been on numerous paternity shows that Maury Povich made famous.
What else I discovered was that he was bisexual. It wouldn't have come up in any conversation because I didn't ask, and I didn't care. I just enjoyed the discussion on manga and anime that he saw while free. That was it...until Dez transferred into Nottoway Correction Center.
Dez was a transgender person with breasts. The kind that had men scoping him out all the time. He arrived in the Intake Units, where we--those in population--couldn't come into contact with Dez. Even so, those in population tried. It was crazy to witness men sit in the chow hall and wait until Dez's unit entered.
As this occurred, Taz was out of the picture. Dez was being pursued by many suitors. So much so that those in population were going to the administration and begging to get Dez moved to our side of the yard.
One of my friends Bolo arrived in Nottoway, spending a few years in the South Carolina prison system, doing time in his home state. He was moved into Dez's cell, and immediately began stressing that Dez had mental health issues. I shook my head and told him to move out of there. Before he could, Dez was moved into population.
Once on our side of the fence, Dez became the talk of the town. He was housed with his first lover, and that ended after they fought. Dez proved to be problematic for those in administration. Complaints came all the time about issues that were frivolous to those in power, but they appeased Dez over and over, because he would call his mother and she would add her voice to her child's issues.
While this occurred, more men came calling for Dez's affections. They would involve themselves with Dez, then it would crumble over fights that started over matters of the heart. Still, when that relationship ended, another one would open up and Dez would have a new lover in his life.
Word soon spread that Dez was possessive and combative. Two things that made it hard for anybody to involve themselves in a partnership with someone heterosexual or transgender.
One afternoon, Taz and Dez were talking to one another in the recreation yard. This was after Dez's boyfriend, Bird was transferred to another facility. Taz lied to everybody that Dez was his cousin when they became inseparable. Once word reached all ears that Taz was the next man up for being a boyfriend for Dez, bets were being made on how long their relationship would last. Especially when they moved in together--and their first fight happened that same night.
It became a theme for them: arguing about everything under the sun as we marched by them in the vestibule, recreation yard and even the chow hall. They eventually called it quits after a few months together. Even as this occurred, they continued being together, even while separated.
This continued to the point where Taz began getting told to stop going into housing units he didn't live in. Most would take heed, but Taz didn't. He was obsessed with Dez, so he continued sneaking into Dez's cell to hang out--and that's where a correction officer caught him and sent him to segregation.
Taz finagled his way to having a cell in segregation by the entrance to our building. We would shout him out on our way to chow or work. While we did, Dez posted up by his window and would talk to him for hours. It continued like this until Taz was released, and Dez was locked up for some kind of foolishness.
The crazy thing was that Taz was losing his mind. He began telling us that he wanted to run his time up (catch more charges to increase his time in prison so Dez and him could be together; Taz had 2 years left, Dez, 10 years). This caused a few men to give Taz an intervention...but it didn't help. Taz lost his mind and did the unthinkable: he snuck his way into segregation and headed to Dez's cell, opened the tray slot and kissed him. On top of that, Taz screamed that he could do whatever he wanted. Well, those in power quelled that nonsense immediately.
They locked Taz up. They even placed Dez on the transfer list. Dez tried to get his transfer stopped, but the administration had had enough of his antics. While Dez waited on the bus to transfer him, he began acting out, doing childish stuff like going to any housing unit he wanted, and yelling at staff.
When Dez finally departed, Taz was released from segregation. He called Dez's mother and spoke with Dez on a three-way call from Pocahontas Correction Center. The call was somber because Dez now recognized that he was at a facility that didn't take kindly to his antics. Taz warned him to calm down and just do his time and he would wait for him when he got free.
This was revealed to me as he and I reconnected in the day room, joking on how he missed seeing Sinners, Michael B. Jordan's movie. While he and I spoke, he revealed that his baby mother was cool with him and Dez's relationship. This was when I discovered Taz was doing this on the streets with his baby mother.
Only in prison could I learn about a love story like this. Only in prison. Only.